With JYJ continuously failing to appear on public broadcast programs due to their lawsuit with agency SM Entertainment, more controversy seems to be brewing for the trio.
Although they’re ranking in on a variety of music charts, fans haven’t been able to see them perform on any of the three major public broadcast music programs yet.
They were reported to have recorded for SBS’s morning talk show, “Good Morning,” on December 27th with a scheduled broadcast date of January 5th. Unfortunately, the date was postponed, which led fans to raise voices of concern questioning why. SBS eventually spoke out, stating, “Broadcast dates changing happen often, but because it’s JYJ, the issues seem to be exaggerated. JYJ’s segment will be airing around the 19th or 20th.”
JYJ’s debut album, “The Beginning,” was also released in October of 2010, but for over three months, the group hasn’t been able to make an appearance on not only music shows, but variety programs as well. They’ve already sold 350,000 copies of their album and have topped all of the major music charts, so why are they making minor appearances instead?
The only programs that have aired their faces were “Sungkyunkwan Scandal,” “KBS News Time,” “Drama Awards,” and “Speedy Source.”
CEO Baek Chang Ju of CJES Entertainment revealed, “Entertainment shows aren’t even inviting them, and even if they do, it eventually becomes canceled, so we’re not even anticipating anything anymore.”
Another representative of JYJ said, “We’ve heard that the KFPCAI have sent out letters to broadcast and entertainment companies to keep JYJ off of their shows. It feels like a gang movement against the appearance of JYJ.”
For the past year, the group has suffered more than one instance of a possible appearance eventually being canceled. A JYJ representative revealed, “We once requested for JYJ to make an appearance on Mnet’s ‘Lee Hyori off the Record,’ and received a positive response. Some time later, they contacted us saying that it wouldn’t work. A new tvN talk show asked us to have Yoochun as their first guest, but that was canceled as well.”
A couple of months ago, SBS News and KBS News revealed that they’d be reporting on the issue between JYJ and SM Entertainment, but the broadcast for that was canceled, as well as the trio’s appearance at the “Blue Dragon Awards” last year.
Regarding this, SBS representatives stated, “It’s true that we investigated the issue, but we decided that it wasn’t news worthy enough to air.“ Mnet representatives replied, “JYJ representatives asked a person that had nothing to do with our show program’s production, and they were rejected on the spot.”
SM Entertainment replied, “Appearance decisions are made by the broadcast companies. It is out of our power as an agency.”
The public reason given by all of the three broadcast company PDs is that JYJ is “currently undergoing a legal battle.“ The three reasoned that they would not be putting celebrities with outstanding contract problems with their agencies on their shows until the issues were worked out.
One PD commented, “We’d rather not create problems by putting a celebrity going through legal problems with their agency on our show. It’s the same for Jay Park and JYP Entertainment.”
Although broadcast representatives use outstanding disputes as their defense, industry representatives have been criticizing them for being so intimidated by the power of entertainment agencies. One public entertainment program PD revealed, “It is true that the majority of PDs are being cautious of the agencies. If they let JYJ on their show, that could bring a full on boycott from SM Entertainment artists, and that’s a big loss.”
SM Entertainment artists are currently fixed cast members of a total of eight programs on all three of the public broadcast companies, including “We Got Married,” “Icon,” “Golden Fishery,” “Strong Heart,” “100 Points out of 100,” and others.
Source + Photos: The Hankyoreh
Credit: AKP
